Pathogenic bacteria are responsible for over fifty infectious diseases. Methodologies allowing detection of the pathogens in clinical, food, water and environmental samples are an important component of infectious disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Currently, pathogen detection involves traditional methods based on cell culture and colony counting, antigen detection methods, PCR-based methods, and various biosensors. Each of these methods has its own strengths and weaknesses. Traditional methods are robust and sensitive, but very slow. Antigen and PCR-based methods are much faster but are technically demanding and in the case of PCR-based methods, prone to false-positives. Biosensors offer the promise of much shorter detection times but require more development before they become a real alternative. There is clearly a need for new detection methodologies that would overcome the limitations of currently existing technologies.